This game is Final Fantasy IV in the new timeline. So in 1991 when the North American audience was ready for a new game in the Final Fantasy series Japan was working on Final Fantasy IV already. So they released the game as Final Fantasy II in North America and Final Fantasy IV in Japan to get everybody together. Having spent time with both the SNES version, the PS1 version or on Virtual Console from Nintendo, we found that it did not matter what copy you were playing it still had the same feel. You are Cecil, a dark knight who has been following the orders of his ruler even though his orders have him attacking people and stealing crystals from them without any reason why and without being provoked. Tired of just being a tyrant he starts to question his King and comes to the conclusion that he can no longer blindly take his orders and decides to find out what is really going on and why the crystals, why now?

This game is a huge leap forward when compared to Final Fantasy for North American and European audiences. This is once again because Square Enix had already released two other games in the series. This game is one of the first Final Fantasy RPGs that is character driven. No empty names like the Knight and White Mage, now it is Cecil leader of the Red Wings fleet of Air Ships and Rosa a white mage and healer and also childhood friend of Cecil. This is also the first Final Fantasy game that introduced the Summoner to the series in the US and Europe. Rydia a young girl who is the last surviving member of her village for some reason has the power to call upon creatures to help her. There are deep changes in the game also as people come and go from your traveling party and each of them have their own agendas that at times come into conflict with the hero’s and main characters. This was something that was new during the 1990’s when this game was originally released and deepens the story.

The PS1 version of this game gave us even more to do. It still looks great on a full 1080p HDTV for a game remade in mid June 2001 and adds some CGI cinemas that were not part of the original SNES release. New items, magic, monsters and behind the scenes stuff like art and original drawings were also included as unlockables. Final Fantasy II or IV (depending on what version you have) is so good and still so popular that it has been remade for several different systems including new stuff like iOS and Android operating systems and a sequel was made called Final Fantasy IV: The After Years was released in 2008. This game is considered to be the first game to have a complex story driven plot that could be given a complete remake today and would still work and you would not have to change a single word. The only thing that we don’t understand is that you can’t buy this game on PSN for your PS3. You can only buy a PSP or Vita copy called Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection. It has both FFIV and the sequel The After Years but for those of us who do not have a PSP or Vita we cannot play this game anymore unless you find a PS1 copy. It took us a little over 30 hours to beat this game in both the SNES, Nintendo Virtual Console copy and the PS1 version. Replay is pretty good considering the fact that there are extra quests to do. We really hope the Sony and Square Enix finds a way for us PS3 owners to buy and play this game once more. Final Fantasy IV is still worth pay under $10 regardless of gaming platform